Author: News_Desk

A Property Owning Democracy?

What was Thatcher’s True Property Legacy?

On the day of her public funeral, we issued a special, single-article edition of our newsletter, analysing through editorial comment the legacy the late Baroness Thatcher leaves to the UK property market.

Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s death has prompted vigorous debate on the matter of her controversial political legacy. In the wake of the passing of a woman described as “the most admired, most hated, most idolised and most vilified public figure of the second half of the 20th century”, we analyse the indelible mark she left on the British property market…

Read the rest of this popular article at this link.

RICS research highlights surprising level of unpredicted repair costs for buyers without a survey

PropertySurveying.co.uk

According to new research by RICS, over a fifth of home buyers who did not take out a pre-purchase survey are in a property they would never have bought had they been aware of its true condition before purchase.

The recently released results of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor’s survey of home buying consumers show that homeowners who did not get a survey are lumped with an average of £5750 in repair bills – matters that would have been highlighted before exchange of contracts by a competent Chartered Surveyor.

Read the rest here…

Derby and Nottingham highways deal up for Bidding

Derby and Nottingham City Councils’ four-year joint highways deal up for tender

The framework will be split into 14 separate lots with a total estimated framework value for both councils of £100m and a potential for the framework to be used by other Midland Highway Alliance members with an estimated value of a further £25m.

 

In case you missed it…What have you got in your barn or garage?

Milton Keynes Surveyors

In an intriguing story this month, an Aston Martin bought for just £1,500 in the 1970s looks set to sell for around £150,000 when it goes to auction in May, after being discovered in a barn.

The 1964 DB5 Sports Saloon has covered just 48,000 miles and, after 10 years of driving, was parked in a garage in Newport Pagnell, near Milton Keynes, and left for 30 years.

£20m investment for 300 Manchester properties – from Tokyo!

Manchester Surveyors – A £20m scheme from Nedo, the Japanese Government’s R&D agency, is set to hit Manchester,  involving the replacement of conventional boilers with air source heat pumps – highly efficient electric heaters that absorb heat from the outside air. These will be twinned with a heat store, which is essentially a hot water tank, to allow heat to be stored until it is needed.

The innovation is in the energy management system that will connect all the homes, linked to the electricity grid and using the stored energy from the heaters to balance the load on the electricity network.

Bristol Uni seeks builder for 400 new student homes

bristolsurveyor.co.uk – The University of the West of England presses ahead with plans to build 1,200 student flats next to its main campus in Frenchay, Bristol.

The £36m building programme is being carved up into three phases stretching over the next five years. Each phase will include around 400 new 8-12 bedroom homes and a contractor is now being sought for the first £15m phase.

Are you involved with this work, or similar work in Bristol? Contact your local propertysurveying.co.uk member here to speak to a Chartered Surveyor about how he could help.

Salford Council goes extra mile for disabled child

salfordsurveyors.co.uk – Salford Council have used part of their £3.5m a year ‘home adaptations programme’ to assist a mother and child in their area, by building an inedible extension. The child suffers from rare disorder ‘Pica Disorder’ which means he has an appetite for non-edible substances.

If you are building an extension, with special requirements or not, contact your local surveyor here.

Nottingham Site Restarted After Four Year Hiatus

nottinghamsurveyors – Willmott Dixon has won the contract to complete the construction of a £40m mixed-use development in central Nottingham, that has remained unfinished since 2008.

The complex – formerly known as Southreef – is structurally complete and partially occupied. When finished it will provide 237 residential apartments as well as office, restaurant, leisure and retail facilities.

Chartered Surveyors don’t just provide reports for home buyers. Many are qualified to provide project management and commercial services to. Contact a local surveyor here to find out more.

Mold development put on hold by flood risk assessment

moldsurveyors.co.uk – A long delay in assessing the flood risk of a reservoir in Greenfield, near Mold, is claimed by a local property developer to be putting homes and lives at risk.

The flooding risk of Flour Mill Reservoir must be determined, before work on eight new townhouses can begin. The Environment Agency instructed Flintshire County Council to complete an inundation map, but this has still not been done, despite a deadline of December 31, 2012.

If you are a developer in the Mold area, or elsewhere in England and Wales, contact your local surveyor to help navigate these difficult issues and ask them about how they can help elsewhere in the development.